Cord Blood Stem Cells | What are Stem Cells? | Cryo-Cell

What are Stem Cells?

Stem cells are master cells that have the potential of becoming any type of cell in the body. One of the main characteristics of stem cells is their ability to self-renew or multiply while maintaining the potential to develop into other types of cells. Stem cells can become cells of the blood, heart, bones, skin, muscles,and brainetc. There are different sources of stem cells but all types of stem cells have the same capacity to develop into multiple types of cells.

Red Cells:Carry oxygen

Platelets:Promote clotting and wound healing

Umbilical cord blood is the blood that remains in the vein of the umbilical cord and placenta at the time of birth. Cord blood is rich in stem cells and Cryo-Cells umbilical cord blood stem cell service collects, processes and cryogenically preserves these stem cells for potential medical use. Cord blood stem cells have been used to treatnearly 80 diseases with over 30,000 transplants worldwide.

Characteristic 5 above is the reason why cord blood stem cells are dubbed privileged, for they are unexposed to most diseases and environmental pollutants, which can make bone marrow from an adult more difficult to use in transplants.

Most importantly, cord blood stem cells from your baby are a perfect match for him/her in the event it should ever be needed, and has a 1-in-4 chance of matching a current or future sibling. It is important to note that a perfect match does not imply that the stem cells will be useful to treat all diseases.

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), an unpredictable condition that happens when the donor's cells begin to attack the transplant recipient and can be fatal, is estimated to occur in 60-80 percent of transplants where the donor and recipient are not related.

The umbilical cord itself is a rich source of stem cells termed mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Mesenchymal stem cells have many unique functions including the ability to inhibit inflammation following tissue damage, to secrete growth factors that aid in tissue repair, and to differentiate into many cell types including neural cells, bone cells, fat cells and cartilage. MSCs are increasingly being utilized in regenerative medicine for a wide range of conditions including heart and kidney disease, ALS, wound healing and autoimmune diseases.

In order to preserve more types and quantity of umbilical cord stem cells and to maximize possible future health options, Cryo-Cells umbilical cord tissue service provides expectant families with the opportunity to cryogenically store their newborns umbilical cord tissue cells contained within substantially intact cord tissue. Should umbilical cord tissue cells be considered for potential utilization in a future therapeutic application, further laboratory processing may be necessary. Regarding umbilical cord tissue, all private blood banks activities for New York State residents are limited to collection, processing, and long-term storage of umbilical cord tissue stem cells. The possession of a New York State license for such collection, processing and long-term storage does not indicate approval or endorsement of possible future uses or future suitability of these cells.

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Cord Blood Stem Cells | What are Stem Cells? | Cryo-Cell